Do studies evaluating early-life policy interventions fully adhere to the critical conditions of difference-in-differences? A systematic review.

Objectives: To assess the reporting and methodological quality of early-life policy intervention papers that applied difference-in-differences (DiD) analysis.

Study Design: Systematic review.

Data Sources: Papers applying DiD of early-life policy interventions in high-income countries as identified by searching Medline, Embase and Scopus databases up to December, 2022.

Identification and development of biphenyl substituted iminosugars as improved dual glucosylceramide synthase/neutral glucosylceramidase inhibitors.

This work details the evaluation of a number of N-alkylated deoxynojirimycin derivatives on their merits as dual glucosylceramide synthase/neutral glucosylceramidase inhibitors. Building on our previous work, we synthesized a series of D-gluco and L-ido-configured iminosugars N-modified with a variety of hydrophobic functional groups. We found that iminosugars featuring N-pentyloxymethylaryl substituents are considerably more potent inhibitors of glucosylceramide synthase than their aliphatic counterparts.

In vitro hydrolytic degradation of hydroxyl-functionalized poly(alpha-hydroxy acid)s.

The in vitro hydrolytic degradation of hydroxyl-functionalized poly(alpha-hydroxy acid)s was investigated. Benzyl-ether-protected hydroxyl-functionalized dilactones (S)-3-benzyloxymethyl-(S)-6-methyl-1,4-dioxane-2,5-dione (1a) and (S)-3-benzyloxymethyl-1,4-dioxane-2,5-dione (1b) were copolymerized in a melt with various amounts of L-lactide using benzyl alcohol and SnOct2 as the initiator and catalyst, respectively. The benzyl groups were removed by hydrogenation to yield polyesters with hydroxyl functional groups, poly(lactic acid-co-hydroxymethyl glycolic acid) and poly(lactic acid-co-glycolic acid-co-hydroxymethyl glycolic acid) (2a and 2b).

False negative results in the Roche assay for HDL-cholesterol.

Measurement of HDL-cholesterol is important in the risk evaluation of cardiovascular disease. Recently, we encountered a 61-year-old man with a negative result for HDL-cholesterol using the Roche assay. Further analysis revealed that this patient had a monoclonal Ig type IgMkappa, with an electrophoresis-based concentration of 55.